Engineering Physics

14.14 Representation of polarized and unpolarized light

Let us consider an ordinary light ray passing perpendicular to the plane of the paper and into the paper. The electric field vectors are perpendicular to the ray propagating with equal amplitude in all possible directions as shown in Fig. 14.22(a). This is the nature of unpolarized light.

The linearly polarized light is shown in Fig. 14.22(b) and in 14.22(c). In Fig. 14.22(b), the direction of electric field vectors lie in the plane of the paper and in Fig. 14.22(c) the direction of electric field vectors are perpendicular to the plane of the paper. The positions of perpendicular vectors of the ray are shown with dots.

 

Figure 14.22 (a) Electrical field vectors of unpolarized light; (b) ...